8of8A model of a drilling site on display at the Sinopec booth during the first day of the Offshore Technology Conference at the NRG Center Monday, May. 6, 2019 in Houston, TX.Photo: Michael Wyke, Houston Chronicle / Contributor

The Offshore Technology Conference’s name is vague, but for 50 years the companies exhibiting in Houston have focused primarily on drilling for oil and natural gas.

I’ve walked the exhibit floor at OTC for five years, and this is the first time that images of offshore wind turbines have taken up entire walls. Steps away from Chinese oil giant Sinopec’s model showing oil wells on land, sea and shale, SGM Offshore demonstrated how tall, white, wind turbines are mounted to the ocean floor.

Fifteen panels presented technical details about the offshore renewable energy to the hundreds of contractors who provide steel, cables and other materials for offshore oil platforms. Hundreds of oil field workers crowded into a panel titled, “Offshore Wind Energy in the U.S.: Dawn of an Industry” looking for new business opportunities.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which typically deals with offshore oil and gas leasing, reported on the sale of 15 commercial wind energy leases and the approval of seven site plans. Eleven more could be approved by the end of 2020.

“A lot of companies that have been active overseas in offshore wind have decided that the time is right here in the U.S.,” said Walter Cruikshank, acting director of BOEM. “We’ve seen in the recent couple of auctions a lot of the companies are a lot better capitalized.”

Offshore wind developers in Europe have developed and tuned their technology, bringing down costs and boosting efficiency. Electricity prices in the northeast U.S. are rising, and policymakers want renewable sources. The federal government has cleared the way for 19 gigawatts of potential capacity on a generously wide continental shelf.

The formula for success is complete. New York state authorities alone want 9 gigawatts by 2035, enough power for 6.1 million homes.

The Scandinavian companies responsible for most of the offshore projects in Europe are taking the lead in U.S. waters. Equinor, Norway’s state-owned oil company, paid $135 million in December to develop offshore wind on 128,000 acres off the coast of Massachusetts.

“You have the leases, you have states that are willing to procure, and at this point, you also have a lot of capable developers,” said Christer af Geijerstam, Equinor’s head of Equinor’s U.S. wind division. The company’s experience drilling in the North Sea provides many advantages, he added.

Another key player is Orsted, a Danish offshore wind development firm, which bought the U.S. company Deepwater Wind in October for $510 million. The company already operates the only offshore wind project in North America and plans to build seven more.

The biggest challenge is developing a skilled workforce and building the specialized ships necessary to turn project construction into an industrial process, said Paul Murphy, Orsted’s head of U.S. engineering.

“As this industry emerges, we have to build the appropriate competence in the U.S. and the northeast,” Murphy added.

Some of the limitations, including the lack of port space, present opportunities for floating offshore wind terminals, which tend to be more expensive than platforms planted in the sea floor. Floating platforms can be constructed onshore, floated to the site and operate farther offshore, out of sight.

While the continental shelf is between 100 and 150 feet deep off the East Coast, the water depth plummets quickly off the West Coast. Projects supplying California, Hawaii and Oregon will need to float, explained Alexia Aubault, engineering manager at Principle Power.

Aubault, like many in the offshore wind business, started out engineering offshore oil and gas platforms, many of which float. While she sees many synergies, she also points out significant differences.

“Oil and gas builds one-offs, there is always a lot of money and there are large margins,” Aubault said. “Offshore wind is building hundreds of these, with extremely thin margins.”

High costs and low margins will keep offshore wind from the Gulf Coast, at least for now. Natural gas powerplants are cheap to build and fuel, making offshore wind uncompetitive, especially with federal tax credits phasing out.

Texans, though, know how to construct large, offshore structures. They know how to run underwater cables and deliver energy to shore. Most importantly, they know how to innovate and lower overhead costs.

Smart oil field service companies will eagerly adapt their offshore technology for renewable energy platforms. The energy transition is now.

Chris Tomlinson has written commentary on business, energy and economics for the Houston Chronicle since 2014. Before joining the Chronicle, he spent 20 years with The Associated Press reporting on politics, conflicts and economics from more than 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. He’s also the author of the New York Times bestseller Tomlinson Hill, and he produced the award-winning documentary film by the same name. Both examine the history and consequences of race, politics and economics in Texas.